I like signing international guys. To me its worth taking a shot on these guys. The potential a lot of these international guys have is huge. Often you don't know what kind of potential these really young guys have until they have been in the organization for a few seasons.

If I remember correctly Yamauchi wanted the Mariners to get Ichiro too. About the only baseball related decision he ever made.

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Yes, he was 100% a Nintendo signing.

My original point was M's rarely ever hit on an international signing. I don't count guys like Ichiro or Dravish as that even though they were international players. They were seasoned vets and I was referring to kids they sign and hope to hit on. They have a very poor record at doing this which hurts since a high majority of baseballs best players are international players.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed, but the Mariners have agreed to pay Suzuki's former team, the Orix Blue Wave, $13,125,000 for the right to negotiate with him. Seattle outbid the Mets and two other major league teams for the negotiating rights to Suzuki.

''Ichiro fits in very well with the Mariners,'' Chuck Armstrong, the team president, said. ''He provides a left-handed bat in the leadoff or No. 2 spot in the lineup, with excellent speed and an above-average arm in the outfield.''

The Mariners plan to play Suzuki in right field. Jay Buhner, who often played right field last season, is a free agent, and team officials said today that if he re-signs with Seattle, he will do so knowing his role will change.

Lincoln and five other Mariners executives spent three days negotiating with Suzuki's agent, Tony Attanasio, in Kobe, home of the Blue Wave. Attanasio had said one criteria for Suzuki was a strong Japanese influence in a team's city, and Seattle has a strong Japanese community.

Although the Mariners had said that pursuing Suzuki was a baseball decision and not an ethnic one, they have a large Japanese presence. Their owner, Hiroshi Yamauchi, is Japanese; he is the chairman of Nintendo in Japan. Lincoln is the retired chairman of Nintendo of America. The Mariners have also played host to a Japanese team at their spring training site in Peoria, Ariz., and Suzuki was there last year.

Suzuki said that playing with the Mariners during spring training helped convince him that he wanted to be in the major leagues.

''Playing with the Mariners is like a dream come true,'' he said today. ''It is good to be joining a team that was successful last season and to be a teammate of my friend Sasaki.''

Kazuhiro Sasaki, a former star in Japan's Central League, is Seattle's closer. The Mariners were the American League wild-card team this season.

Suzuki is known in Japan by just his first name. He has won seven straight batting titles with the Blue Wave in Japan's Pacific League. He hit .387 last season and is a .353 career hitter with 118 home runs and 199 stolen bases in nine seasons. In 1997 he went 216 consecutive plate appearances without striking out.

Suzuki was reportedly asking for a contract of more than four years and an annual salary of about $7.4 million. He was said to have made about $5.5 million this season.